Dance Life Away
by RadiantBeam
Summary: Just make sure you don't crush your partner's toes. ::Nadie x Ellis:: ::One-shot, iPod challenge::


Disclaimer: I don't own El Caza or the songs used.

Author's Note: Earlier today I wrote this challenge for the Mina/Sets pairing in Sailor Moon, then discovered a lack of El Caza fics in my profile and decided to try it! The challenge sounds simple: put your iPod on shuffle and write down drabbles for the first 10 songs you hear. The catch? When the song ends, you have to stop writing and move on to the next drabble. For anyone interested in my Mina/Sets attempt at this challenge, it's titled "Time's Melody"... drop me a review and tell me what you think! (shameless plug...)

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**Dance Life Away**

**01. Stronger – Faith Hill**

Ellis always believed Nadie was the strongest of them.

Nadie could fight. Nadie could shoot a gun and hold her own in hand to hand combat. Nadie could stop a man in his tracks with a single glare and an icy word.

And Nadie protected her. Nadie always protected her.

Ellis knew she wasn't very strong, even with her witch powers; she barely knew how to control them yet. She couldn't shoot a gun, and her hand to hand combat was horrible. Nadie sometimes claimed she was too kind to know when to stop a man.

As such, Ellis always believed Nadie was the strongest of them. She always believed Nadie was stronger.

Then, when Blue Eyes brought her back from the jaws of death, and she woke to find Nadie cold and motionless beside her, she realized something.

Nadie was strong. Physically, she was stronger than Ellis on any given day of the week.

But without her partner, Nadie's strength abandoned her.

Ellis never told her this. She kept it her little secret and treasured it dearly. And she vowed to never leave Nadie alone again.

Because Nadie was stronger. And Nadie needed her.

**02. Never There (She Stabs) – Strata**

Nadie had only vague memories of her mother.

Her mother had died when she'd been young, in the village plundering that had left the bounty hunter as the only survivor. Nadie had only a faded impression of the woman who had birthed her; black hair, eyes the same color as hers, a gentle voice.

But her eyes haunted Nadie the most, even when every other memory faded. Her mother's eyes had been sad. They'd been so sad because before Nadie had been born, her father had abandoned her mother. He hadn't been able to settle into the quiet village life.

Nadie was old enough now to understand, and hate him a little inside for it.

Then she met Ellis.

Ellis bore no real physical resemblance to her mother. Ellis was thin and fragile, with pale hair and an air of innocence about her that Nadie could never remember her mother having. But Ellis's eyes had been like her mother's eyes: so sad, so haunted. Like she'd lost the center of her universe.

Nadie vowed never to leave Ellis, and to chase away the sadness in her eyes. She would not be like her father.

**03. If Only She Knew – Michelle Branch**

A young woman in town had taken a shine to Ellis, and it took all of Nadie's self-control not to shoot the girl dead where she stood.

The girl was pretty, too—damn her. She had brown hair and clear gray eyes, and her lips were full and pouty.

Damn her. Damn her to Hell and back.

Scowling, Nadie forced herself to read her book and tried not to sneak a look at Ellis and the girl; both of them were laughing. Ellis seemed to like the girl and, while the bounty hunter did not doubt the young witch's feelings for her, she couldn't help feeling a little jealous.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the clear-eyed brunette cover Ellis's hand with her own. She shot up from her chair, slamming the book to the table with such force that it rattled as she stalked to the car. "Ellis!" she shouted over her shoulder. "Come on! We've got to keep moving!"

From behind, she heard Ellis giggle. "Yes, sir."

**04. No One – Aly and AJ**

Sometimes Ellis hated her witch powers.

It made her feel different. She knew she was odd compared to normal people; she could freeze things, set them on fire, levitate. Just the smallest hint of her true strength had other people shying away from her.

Nadie never treated Ellis like she was odd. She talked to the girl always, joked with her, made her laugh and smile and protected her when the time came. It was only a matter of time before Ellis decided to broach the subject. "Nadie?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you… do you think I'm weird?"

Nadie frowned contemplatively for a moment, drumming her fingers against the steering wheel; she chuckled and shrugged, giving Ellis a lopsided smile.

"Weird? No. Ellis, you're just you."

Ellis couldn't get the grin off her face for the rest of the day.

She knew she was still odd, but she didn't care anymore.

**05. Candyman – Christina Aguilera**

"I think you're trying to seduce me."

"Is it working?"

Nadie lifted a brow, her lips twitching. Ellis fought the laugh that bubbled up into her throat, swallowing gamely as she leaned against the redhead. Always curious, she lifted a hand and gently combed her fingers through Nadie's hair, toying with her braid, playing with the bead. "You know, I liked you the moment I saw you."

"Oh really?"

"Oh really. I think it was your hair, first… it looked so silky." To prove her point, Ellis combed her fingers through it again.

"Well." Nadie's brain began to cloud. "Ah."

"Then there was your body," Ellis mused almost to herself, her hands sliding down to toy innocently with Nadie's shirt beneath her tunic. "You were very muscular for a woman. I'd never seen that before. I liked it."

Ellis's hand grazed the hem of Nadie's pants and had the redhead's breath hitching.

"Ellis? You still trying to seduce me?"

Ellis grinned. "Yes."

"Good. It's working."

**06. Stronger Than I Am – Lee Ann Womack**

Nadie wasn't delusional. She knew that people would look at her, then look at Ellis, and decide immediately that she was the strongest of them. She certainly looked the part, and she knew it.

They would have been wrong.

Until she met Ellis, Nadie had been lost; following the road, not knowing where she was going or what she'd do when she reached the end of the drive. And then Ellis came, and gave her a purpose.

And Ellis had faced death unflinchingly. She'd been willing to die to save the world, to save Nadie. She hadn't been afraid; just accepting.

People looked at Ellis and thought she was weak.

Nadie looked at Ellis and knew she was stronger than she could ever hope to be.

**07. I Don't Want To Miss A Thing – Aerosmith**

Once Nadie figured out she loved Ellis, she couldn't take her eyes off the pale-haired girl. It was her new favorite pastime.

She couldn't help it; every little thing Ellis did, the little gestures and smiles, the look in her eyes, cast a spell over Nadie that the bounty hunter could never completely break. Every moment with Ellis was carefully saved in her memory, the details crystal clear.

Nadie had never been good with words. They tied her tongue and clogged her throat, and she knew she could never say all the things she was feeling to Ellis. So she watched, and she remembered.

After believing Ellis dead and having another chance at life with her, Nadie was determined to remember everything she could.

Because she understood, now more than ever before, that everything about Ellis was precious.

**08. Innocence – Avril Lavigne**

Ellis had never been truly innocent; she'd known right from the moment she was old enough to understand the definition of the word that 'innocent' didn't fit her at all. She was young, but she was not innocent. How could she be? She was not a child of God. No human mother had birthed her, and no matter what anyone else said, a man's blood stained her hands.

Ellis knew she wasn't innocent and never would be innocent.

Then she met Nadie, and learned 'innocent' was a loose term for anyone.

Nadie had sad eyes. Nadie could smile, but it didn't completely reach her eyes and there was a sadness to it that Ellis's smiles didn't have. Nadie spoke with a wisdom in her voice that Ellis could never understand.

Nadie wasn't innocent, either.

Ellis thought they were quite a pair; neither of them innocent in any definition of the word.

But for Nadie's sake, she acted innocent. She knew Nadie needed something pure, something untainted in her life. She didn't know how she knew, but she did.

Ellis knew she wasn't innocent—not really.

But she maintained an air of innocence, because she knew that innocence was exactly what Nadie needed.

**09. Dive Right In – Story of the Year**

Nadie always did things on whim. She had lived her life as such for the past God knows how long, and she didn't intend to change now.

That was how she got the job with Ellis; she randomly decided it was the best job, since none of the others paid much or interested her, and to be honest she was bored as heck when Blue Eyes gave her a call. Not the best way of doing things, but it worked.

Meeting Ellis was like being hit by a car. It just suddenly _happened_, and if you survived by some small miracle your life was changed forever.

Suddenly, Nadie couldn't do things on whim anymore, because she had Ellis to think about. She hadn't thought of anyone's health in years, and it was nice to do it.

When Nadie decided to help Ellis, however, that was done in her old fashion; on whim, more influenced by emotion than common sense.

She never regretted it.

**10. August Is Over – We The Kings**

Ellis missed the days in their early journey.

Those days had been warm, with stars lighting up the dark night sky and no pressure on their shoulders. They were almost like children then, her and Nadie; randomly cruising along, meeting other people and helping them, settling where they wanted when they wanted. They had been free, and the days had been warm.

Once Ellis discovered her origins, where she had to go, the days began to grow cold.

They could never go back to those free easy days, those days full of warmth. Now they had a destination, now they had a purpose, and the freedom was gone, the warmth sapped away to be replaced by a chill.

Reaching out, Ellis gripped Nadie's hand tightly as they drove, comforted when the bounty hunter gently clasped their fingers together.

Ellis missed those warm days. And even though these new cold days scared her a little, she didn't mind.

Nadie was with her, and she wasn't going away.

**The End**

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I find this just as odd and confusing as "Time's Melody", but meh. I wanted to give it a shot.

Read and review, please!


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